Saturday, April 26, 2008

Many Opportunities Lost...

MORE than one opportunity was squandered by the Boston Red Sox Friday night in Tampa Bay. And the Rays won the 11 inning game by a score of 5-4. They made so many sparkling defensive plays while the Red Sox could not score in the ninth or tenth with two on and one out. Mike Timlin, sore back and all, pitched the last inning, and it was over quickly. Here's what Tito Francona had to say...

“We had our chances. We had the guys up that we wanted, but we weren’t able to push a run across,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “Everybody gets frustrated. You want to win so bad. We got guys on, we couldn’t push the run across.”

Peter here again, and BOY, did they have their chances, but alas, the Red Sox went down for the third straight time. This team needs a day off, maybe a WEEK of days off. Two more games to go in Tampa and then they'll be homeward bound and enjoy that treasured day without a game scheduled. And that will be nice. Last night, the Sox again had another double digit hit total, so their problems in the last three games do not reside there. But they are a sick ball club, one that has had to scrap and paste together the healthy players and pitchers. Even Jason Varitek, who is feeling nowhere near 100%, was called into action. On the pitching side, once Wakefield was finished for the day, the bullpen took over the game and held the Rays scoreless into the second extra inning. That's where Mike Timlin came into the picture. Here are the Boston pitching lines...

IP H R ER BB K HR Season ERA
T. Wakefield 6.0 6 4 3 5 1 0 4.06
D. Aardsma 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3.29
B. Corey 1.2 2 0 0 10.50
J. Lopez 0.2 1 0 0 0 1 0 4.50
M. Timlin 0.2 2 1 1 1 0 0 13
(L 0-2)

Peter here...Timmy Wakefield did not pitch badly, but his knuckie was all over the place. He usually wins when pitching in the Tampa Bay area, but not last night. Three earned runs ain't bad, though, and we rest our hopes today with Clay Buchholz, who looked so good in his last start, and on Sunday, Josh Beckett. So we are armed, we'll just have to see how dangerous we are. If you have a chance, click on the title of this post for the Boston Herald Red Sox home page and take your pick of any and all of the articles about last night in Florida. Have a great weekend, and as always, BE WELL.

6 Comments:

At 4/26/2008 8:56 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Timmy Wakefield did not pitch badly, but his knuckie was all over the place."

No, he pitched horribly, actually.

 
At 4/26/2008 12:33 PM, Blogger Peter N said...

Lisa...I based my opinion comparing this start to his last two...runs allowed-wise, but you're right. The "B" boys (Buchholz and Beckett) will enable us to go home to Boston feeling better. I have to hope! Have a great weekend...I'll post tomorrow (if not before) about the 7-2 Sox Sat. victory. Gee, talk about going out on a limb...but I'm good at it, or really bad! Time will tell, but I have faith, as do you.

 
At 4/26/2008 12:56 PM, Blogger Rooster said...

Peter - 7 to 2 sounds good to me!

Clay has to get to the 7th inning, otherwise we are killing the bull pen.

Wonder what they'll do for infield backup. With Casey out and Cora out, they only have 4 infielders on the active roster, unless they make a move before game time.

 
At 4/26/2008 3:34 PM, Blogger gingerly said...

Isn't Cash a surprise? I always expect him to strike out, but he comes through so often. I didn't get why they brought Varitek in last night. He looked tired and ill.

We're going to win tonight. I can feel it.

 
At 4/27/2008 4:24 AM, Blogger redsox.njdevils said...

I wish you really were superstious Keith, but (unfortunately) we weren't able to pull out a win.
Clay was awesome, though, so the night wasn't a complete loss.

I couldn't see Tek through the radio, but I've heard that he got flu the worst out of all of his teammates, so I imagine he looked pretty bad...

 
At 4/27/2008 6:47 AM, Blogger Peter N said...

Rooster, Clay pitched the second best eight in his life, and had the best 2008 start by ANY of our guys. Wow! Thanks.

Hey Keith, 'Tek hasn't recovered and Cash has done anything (and more) asked of him so far. He's a good guy to have on a team, much like Sean C.

And Brittany, hi to you. From the time of your comment, you must have been up early or to sleep late. But you're right...'TEK shouldn't have played, but I know that he and Clay "get along," communication-wise, and with Jason behind the plate, he gives Buchholz added confidence. And BOY, did it work last night!!! I wish we had scored three runs, but it's still April, and right now the two weakest parts of our rotation are (surprise!!) Wakes and Lester.

 

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